The project

I have been working as an artist with photography for a long time. In my recent bodies of works the Baroque meets the present time. The images function like film stills – the before and the after is missing – and a lot of the action seems to be happening outside the photographic frame. This absence in the photograph on the one hand and the gazes, gestures and symbols inherent in the images on the other hand cause the viewer to construct her or his own narrative. These images are to be published as an art book.

STILL – Brigitte Lustenberger

«Brigitte Lustenberger's images seduce the spectator's gaze into a wonderful universe. Her visual language is closely related to art history. Our own stories and our own history mingle with these images as we are left in the dark if we have or have not seen them before. The photographs are like frozen reflections on the lapse of time. The interaction between Lustenberger's single images is intriguing as there are so many coincidental plots to follow. Their beginnings are as undetermind as their outcomes. The spectator's gaze meets the gazes of the photographed people, their gazes are caught by the photographer's gaze. The stark contrast of the colors – most images have a deepblack background – pulls the spectator into another world.» Bernhard Bischoff, text about «etagen» show.

«Who is looking at whom? Brigitte Lustenberger's photographs are pressing this question. The swiss artist looks into the relationship of the observer and the observed. She wants to know if the gaze is charged by information, by assumptions or anticipation, or rather by alleged knowledge. <…> The Zurich artist who lives and works in Bern opens up a carefully and smartly constructed scenario for the viewer's phantasy and imagination to read potential relationships and enigmatic incidents in the image … without ever loosing its intriguing mysteriousness.» Alice Henkes in Der Bund

Why do I need your support?

We intend STILL to be a a highest quality publication with great print quality in order to see even the most subtle details in my images – also in the dark parts of the photographs. I work with a most professional team: graphic designer Flavia Cocchi, lithograph Roger Emmenegger and the printing house Courvoisier SA. The publication is supported artistically and financially by the two Co-editors and public funds. However, a fine publication has its price and I depend on your financial support. Besides the publication you can purchase my image «Flowers I» or «Flowers VII». Both images are presented in the video on this page.

Bio

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Brigitte Lustenberger studies at Zurich University and receives her MA in Social and Photo History in 1996. In the following years she establishes herself as an fine art photographer. She moves to New York and receives her MFA in «Fine Art Photography and Related Media» at Parsons The New School of Design in 2007. The main issues in her works lie in her interest in the study of the gaze, the interplay between absence and presence in a photographic image, and the fact that the reading of a photograph is most often triggered by a collective memory.

Brigitte Lustenberger has shown nationally and internationally in both solo and group shows. She had Solo Shows at the Museée de l’Elysée in Lausanne/Switzerland, at Scalo Gallery in Zurich and New York, at Le Maillon in Strasbourg/France, MadonnaFust Gallery in Bern, Photoforum PasquArt in Bienne. Her works have been part of group shows in the Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthalle Luzern, Art Cologne, Centro Internationale de Fotografia in Milan. She was awarded the Grand Prize Winner PDNedu, the Golden Light Award, Shots/Corbis Student Photographer of the Year, Prix de Photoforum PasquArt, The Photo Review Comeptition, Selection Voies Off at Arles, and others. She received fellowships for Cairo and Maloja and was awarded with the presitgious swiss Landis&Gyr Resiceny in 2013. In the same year she was awarded for the second time (after 2002) the Photo Award of the Canton Bern.

Dr. Julia Hountou: Art historian and curator Dr. Julia Hountou is director of the gallery Theatre du Crochetan in Monthey, Valais/CH. She received her PhD about Gina Pane’s works between 1968 and 1981 at the Paris University/Panthéon/Sorbonne in 2007. 2009-2011 Hountou was member of the Academie de France in Rom/Villa Medici. Sie has been publishing articles and catalogs about contemporary art.

Project Status

Rewards

Signed book with dedication + 5 postcards with images from the book + name printed in the publication

CHF

250.-

5 taken

Signed book with dedication + 5 postcards with images from the book + name printed in the publication + invitation to the book opening with a VIP-apéro

CHF

450.-

1 / 15 taken

Signed book with dedication + 5 postcards with images from the book + name printed in the publication + invitation to the book opening with a VIP-apéro + a guided tour through my next show in Bern or Zurich

CHF

2’000.-

1 / 15 taken

Signed book with dedication + 5 postcards with images from the book + name printed in the publication + invitation to the book opening with a VIP-apéro + a print of «Flowers VII» (C print, 40x32cm, limited edition of 15)

CHF

4’500.-

0 / 1 taken

Signed book with dedication + 5 postcards with images from the book + name printed in the publication + invitation to the book opening with a VIP-apéro + a print of «Flowers I»(C print, edition 5/5, 100x80cm, mounted on black PVC; Lilies on the cover of the book)

Pledged without rewards:

CHF 200.-

About the Initiators

Brigitte Lustenberger studies initially photo history at Zurich University. Combining theory and practice she establishes herself as an artist. 2007 she gets an MFA in Fine Art Photography at Parsons School of Design. Solo shows: Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Scalo Galerie in Zürich + NYC, Photoforum Biel. 2013 she wins the Landis&Gyr award, 2002 + 2013 the photo award of the Canton of Bern.

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